The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo has taken a swipe at the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying Nigerians ‘tricked’ into voting for the ruling party are now regretting and lamenting their action.

Kennedy Peretei, the spokesperson for the main opposition PDP stated this in a release issued to reporters on Tuesday in Akure in reaction to an earlier statement by the chairman of the APC in the state, Ade Adetimehin.

Mr Adetimehin had, on Monday, attacked the PDP in the state, saying the main opposition party has “gone into extinction” following the defection of its members to the governing APC.

“The PDP has gone into extinction in Ondo state and that is why many members of the opposition political parties are coming to join the APC in Ondo state,” Mr Adetimehin had told reporters at an interactive session in Akure.

But in his reply, Mr Peretei explained that the people are already holding the APC responsible for the suffering and agony they are passing through with the removal of the fuel subsidy and its biting effect on the nation’s economy.

“Adetimehin is probably the only person who is oblivious to the fact that Ondo state people hold his party, APC and its inhuman government responsible for their suffering and agony of the last eight years, especially the withdrawal of fuel subsidy and its biting effect on everybody.

“He (Adetimehin) does not realise that, even those who were tricked into voting APC in the 2023 general elections are already regretting and lamenting their miscalculation that has brought about untold hardship on them and their families,” he said in the statement on Tuesday.

Mr Peretei added that, “Such a man, if he has any sense of shame and responsibility, should have been on his knees begging the people for the huge misfortune masterminded by his party. To now open his mouth in a most careless manner to say “PDP is now extinct” is not only laughable but mischief of the highest order.”

He noted that those leaving the PDP for the APC and being celebrated by Mr Adetimehin are the members who had been docile in the last two cycles of elections in the state.

While explaining that a few members of the opposition party had left its fold since 2016, Mr Peretei said the PDP remained vibrant in the state and had not gone into extinction.

“PDP cannot be extinct, there are no such signs. And it will never be,” he added.

“Majority of the 203 Councillors Adetimehin is celebrating for joining his party have not been active in the last two cycles of elections in Ondo State. A few of them have been in the APC since 2016.

“How the defection of such characters translates to PDP being extinct can only be understood by someone like Adetimehin who is presiding over a dangerously fragmented APC in the State but deludes himself with fun-seeking decampees who tell him tales by moonlight.”

Mr Peretei said the PDP in the state is unruffled by a few persons who are in “a self-destruct misadventure of Adetimehin’s sinking APC ship” in the state.

“While we sympathise with such persons, it is pathetic that those who should be weeping are dancing and rejoicing. But in no distant time, reality will dawn on them that, indeed, they lived a lie all along.”